Zhan Beleniuk
Zhan Vensanovych Beleniuk[a] (Ukrainian: Жан Венсанович Беленюк; born 24 January 1991) is a Ukrainian politician and retired Greco-Roman wrestler. He is a three-time Olympic medalist and won the gold medal in the Greco-Roman 87 kg at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the silver medal in the Greco-Roman 85 kg at the 2016 Summer Olympics and a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman 87 kg at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Beleniuk is also a two-time world champion, a three-time European champion and a European Games champion. In 2019, he became the first black member of the Ukrainian Parliament.[1][2][3]
Early life
Beleniuk was born in 1991 in Kyiv to a father from Rwanda and a mother from Ukraine. His father, a Rwandan Hutu, was a pilot who studied in Kyiv at the National Aviation University and died during the Rwandan Civil War when Beleniuk was 3 years old.[4]
Beleniuk began wrestling in 2000 when he was nine years old.[5]
Career
In 2010, Beleniuk won the silver medal at the Junior World Championships. In 2011, he became the Junior European Champion amongst, and won bronze at the World Championship. In 2012, he won the bronze medal at the European Championships. In 2013, he won bronze again at the Summer Universiade.
In 2014, he won a gold medal at the 2014 European Wrestling Championships,[6] and bronze at the World Championships.
In 2015, he won the silver medal at the first European Games in Azerbaijan. On 10 September 2015, after winning against the then-reigning World Champion and then-Champion of Asia, Uzbek Rustam Assakalov scoring 6:0, Beleniuk won gold at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships in the under-85 kg weight category.
In 2016, he won gold at the 2016 European Wrestling Championships, followed by the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[7]
In 2021, he won the gold medal in the men's Greco-Roman 87 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[8]
Beleniuk was briefly a member of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. He left the National Olympic Committee in January 2023 due to disagreement with its new president Vadym Gutzeit.[9] In 2024, Beleniuk won a bronze medal in the men's Greco-Roman 87 kg at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and subsequently retired from competing.[10][11]
Politics
Beleniuk was elected a deputy to the Verkhovna Rada in July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election as a member of the Servant of the People political party.[12] He was one of the first ten candidates on the party's electoral list.[13]
Achievements
| Year | Tournament | Venue | Result | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | European Cadet Championships | Warsaw, Poland | 2nd | Greco-Roman 76 kg |
| 2008 | European Cadet Championships | Daugavpils, Latvia | 3rd | Greco-Roman 76 kg |
| 2010 | European Junior Championships | Samokov, Bulgaria | 10th | Greco-Roman 84 kg |
| World Junior Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 3rd | Greco-Roman 84 kg | |
| 2011 | European Junior Championships | Zrenjanin, Serbia | 1st | Greco-Roman 84 kg |
| World Junior Championships | Bucharest, Romania | 2nd | Greco-Roman 84 kg | |
| 2012 | European Championships | Belgrade, Serbia | 3rd | Greco-Roman 84 kg |
| 2013 | European Championships | Tbilisi, Georgia | 8th | Greco-Roman 84 kg |
| Summer Universiade | Kazan, Russia | 3rd | Greco-Roman 84 kg | |
| 2014 | European Championships | Vantaa, Finland | 1st | Greco-Roman 85 kg |
| World Championships | Tashkent, Uzbekistan | 3rd | Greco-Roman 85 kg | |
| 2015 | European Games | Baku, Azerbaijan | 2nd | Greco-Roman 85 kg |
| World Championships | Las Vegas, United States | 1st | Greco-Roman 85 kg | |
| Military World Games | Mungyeong, South Korea | 1st | Greco-Roman 85 kg | |
| 2016 | European Championships | Riga, Latvia | 1st | Greco-Roman 85 kg |
| Olympic Games | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 2nd | Greco-Roman 85 kg | |
| 2018 | World Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 2nd | Greco-Roman 87 kg |
| 2019 | European Championships | Bucharest, Romania | 1st | Greco-Roman 87 kg |
| European Games | Minsk, Belarus | 1st | Greco-Roman 87 kg | |
| World Championships | Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan | 1st | Greco-Roman 87 kg | |
| 2021 | European Championships | Warsaw, Poland | 3rd | Greco-Roman 87 kg |
| Olympic Games | Tokyo, Japan | 1st | Greco-Roman 87 kg | |
| 2023 | World Championships | Belgrade, Serbia | 3rd | Greco-Roman 87 kg |
| 2024 | European Championships | Bucharest, Romania | 3rd | Greco-Roman 87 kg |
| Olympic Games | Paris, France | 3rd | Greco-Roman 87 kg |
International competition
See also
Notes
- ^ Also transliterated Jean Vensanovich Belenyuk
References
- ^ Штогрін, Ірина (11 June 2019). "Чи пройшла Україна "тест Чепурного", реагуючи на першого темношкірого кандидата у депутати Жана Беленюка". Радіо Свобода (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 15 February 2021.
- ^ "Монобільшість Зе, бюджетні гроші для Шарія та перший темношкірий депутат. 7 "вперше" виборів у Раду | Громадське телебачення". hromadske.ua (in Ukrainian). 22 July 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
- ^ "Ukraine's Zhan Beleniuk reaches Greco-Roman wrestling quarter-finals at 2024 Olympics".
- ^ Melkozerova, Veronika. (14 December 2018). Zhan Beleniuk: Champion wrestler refuses better offers abroad to stay at home: ‘I belong here’. Archived 24 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine Kyiv Post. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
- ^ Bagaterenko, Anton (31 May 2014). "Жан Беленюк: "В Африке я слишком светлый, в Украине – слишком темный"" [Zhan Beleniuk: "In Africa I was too light, and in Ukraine — too dark"]. Tribuna.com (in Russian). Ukraine. Archived from the original on 5 June 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
- ^ "Жан Беленюк: "Мне не раз предлагали выступать за другие сборные, но я — украинец"". fakty.ua (in Russian). Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
- ^ "The Olympic Team of Ukraine: Rio 2016: Official Handbook" (PDF). noc-ukr.org. National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. p. 28. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
Беленюк Жан / Belenyuk Jean
- ^ "Wrestling: BELENIUK Zhan". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 28 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ^ "NOC excluded Surkis, Shufrych, Shevchenko and Belenyuk from its composition". Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 13 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ "Ukraine wrestler Beleniuk wins bronze, retires". ESPN.com. 8 August 2024. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
- ^ "Wrestling Results Book" (PDF). 2024 Summer Olympics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
- ^ "Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party unveils candidates for parliament". Kyiv Post.
- ^ "First hundred candidates on Servant of the People's election list: who are they?". Archived from the original on 19 July 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Zhan Beleniuk". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017.
External links
- Zhan Beleniuk at United World Wrestling (archived)
- Zhan Belenyuk at the International Wrestling Database
- Zhan Beleniuk at Olympics.com
- Zhan Beleniuk at Olympedia
- Jean Vensanovich Beleniuk at Verkhovna Rada (in Ukrainian)
- Zhan Beleniuk at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics
- Zhan Beleniuk on Instagram